One Breath At A Time
by Nora-HBS-Girl
Summary: A Completely AU Story Where Brody and Nora Rescue Each Other From Darkness And End Up Falling In Love.
1. Preface

**A/N You should know that this story is strictly AU, so don't expect any of the things that happened on the show to be true. lol. **

**Preface**

Where does a love story truly begin? Does it begin on the day your paths intersect or on the day you look at the person who you've seen every day for years and yet never truly seen until now? Or maybe it begins before any of that.

I think this love story began on that fateful night when a soldier met a single mother alone out on a dark and dangerous road. She was holding her babies against her breast as she fumbled for something amongst a torn bag lying on the street. He could have left them by the wayside and continued on...except he didn't.

There were no words uttered between them...only a man who gave the babies warmth and the woman a shoulder to cry on. He didn't know her story...maybe he never would...she didn't know his...maybe she didn't care to...but on that night, he helped her out of the tattered clothes she wore and gave her a warm bath for which to clean her battered body...and he gave her a bed to lay her tired head upon...her and the children she was holding onto for dear life...in the morning he would learn she was with child as well...and he would make the noble sacrifice to marry her before he even knew her name...she would keep the home fires burning as he went off to a war raging around them.

And maybe that was when the story had truly begun...when he began sending her a single flower and a letter every week when he had some downtime in the battle field...and she responded with the utmost care to each and every one. Their story was different then most. They had married first...and fallen in love later. He had taken on the job of father to two children he had only met the night before and one that was growing inside her...She would tell him later that most men would not do that for a complete stranger... but he didn't think of it that way...he didn't think that marrying her and raising her children was much of a sacrifice...it was a blessing.

She had come into his life when he was at a crossroads...for on the night he stumbled upon the woman and her two small children, he was about to take a pistol to his brain...she had not only saved him from certain death...she had restored his faith in life and love...and in return he had saved her from horrors of her own...horrors that would keep her up at night afraid to close her eyes...horrors the war had taught him well.

Sometimes people who seemed perfectly mismatched on the outside were in fact exactly what you needed to heal your shattered soul...they healed each other slowly...they loved each other fiercely...they lived a life on borrowed time.

What exactly that means will be explored much later... For this is more then a love story...it's a story of strength and healing...and where it started isn't as important as the steps along the way.._.Can two broken souls heal the hurt in their hearts enough to love beyond the demons?_


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

_24 hours earlier_

She wasn't sure what had finally snapped in her but she couldn't stop now. Somewhere back in that dark apartment, was the man she had shot in the head. She was covered in blood as she held her children against her.

"Mommy, are you okay, " one of her children asked? She should have known better then to assume that they'd be unaffected. They had seen her fight this war for as long as they were alive. She had tried to be what their father wanted...needed...but nothing had ever been good enough...and nothing ever would be.

She wiped tears from her eyes as she continued on in the cold snow..."We'll be all right baby...mommy will be okay."

She knew they were looking down at the tattered dress and the blood on her hands...she had done the only thing she could to protect herself...and them...It hadn't been until he came after them that she had snapped, she realized. She would have died before she ever let him put his hands on them the way he had on her.

"Mommy I'm cold," her youngest cried. "Where are we going to go?"

"I don't know yet baby...here, bundle up."

She took the jacket off and wrapped her son and her daughter in it. She would rather bear the cold then let them bear it.

++++

Brody had taken care of everything. He had seen too much in the war. Seen the bodies of his friends being blown apart. Seen little children dying in the battle field. He couldn't go back to that. He couldn't face the nightmares that now plagued him. He would make it clean...make it quick. He didn't want anyone to have to clean up his brains after he had blown them out. Maybe it was that second guessing that sent him out in the cold snow tonight...he was searching for a cleaner way to die...

He stared at the gun in his hands and knew that he couldn't do it that way...it would be just like the bodies he had seen on the battle field. He would simply go to a drug store and find some sort of drug to take it all away...soon the pain would be over...everything would be over...

_That's what he thought anyways...that's what he thought before a detour took him in the direction of the three people he would meet on the corner of the road...frozen and fading. _

It was amazing how one wrong turn could lead you to your destiny...he didn't know it at the time but that wrong turn had been the best thing that ever happened to him.


	3. Chapter 2

**One Breath At A Time**

She was shuddering against the back of a wall on the side of the road. She had been forced to take a break when the cold and the pain had caused weariness and fatigue. Her baby girl was wrapped in her shirt, nuzzled against her breast, trying to keep warm. Her son was curled up on her chest, her arms blanketing him from the cold. She was shivering from the cold but she would keep her babies warm until she was able to move on.

Brody was driving by the same corner they were perched on, his eyes not really on the road, when something he couldn't explain caused him to look up...and he could see the fear in the little boy's eyes... it was something he had seen one too many times.

Pulling the car to a stop, he put the gun in his glove compartment and stepped out. The little boy was the first he made eye contact with. "Hey buddy," he said, kneeling down next to him. "You look like you could use some help. What's your name?"

"Mommy says we shouldn't talk to strangers," he said.

"Well she's right...so how about I tell you something about myself. My name is Brody."

His words stopped when Nora's eyes opened and he caught wind of the little girl asleep against her breast. "Hello," Nora said. "You're not here to take us away are you? I just needed some rest before we continued on."

"Are you always this defensive," he asked?

"I can't help it...I've never had reason to believe anyone would help us."

"Well I want to...if you'll let me."

"Why? What's in it for you?"

"The pleasure of your company," he said. "Look..."

"Nora," she said. "My name is Nora. Just Nora."

"Well 'just' Nora...my name is Brody...Brody Lovett...I'm a navy seal...I just got home from the war and could really use some honest company...you'd be doing me a favor if you let me help you."

"Well if you're sure," she said. There was something in his eyes that told her she could trust him.

"I'm sure," Brody said, as he extended his hand and helped her to her feet. "This is my little girl Rebecca...we call her Becca for short...and the handsome boy you just spoke to...that's Aiden."

"Well it's nice to meet you." he said, shaking Aiden's hand. He helped them into his car and drove away. They didn't ask where they were going, nor did they offer any suggestion. It wasn't until they had passed the city limits when she asked him.

"Were are we going?"

"Somewhere we can start over," he said. She didn't question that. She wanted it to. He ended up bringing her to his cabin in Michigan. The kids had fallen asleep so she had carried them in and put them to bed. Brody even had a small play-pin for the little girl.

"I'm surprised you have all this stuff," she said.

"Yeah well...I lost a child once upon a time. I couldn't bring myself to get rid of it. I was hoping some day I'd need it again."

"I'm sorry for your loss," she said, putting her hand upon his shoulder.

"So am I...but it was a long time ago. Right now I'd like to hear about you...what are you running from Nora. I can see it in your eyes...your scared."

"I...I killed a man Brody. In no time at all, the cops may be coming for me. He was a horrible jack ass who hurt me a lot...but I still killed him."

"Did he beat you," he asked?

"Am I that transparent?"

"No... but the truth is on your face?"

"It's not just there," she said. "It's all over."

"Do you mind if I have a look...I need to make sure you don't need medical treatment."

"No hospitals."

"Why not?"

"He's...he was a doctor. He used the hospital to hurt me. I'm scared to go back to one...even if I probably need one."

"Were you...were you sexually assaulted Nora?"

"Would it change things?"

"No...No, I still think your beautiful."

"You do?"

"I think you're gorgeous," he said.

"No one's ever said that to me before."

"Then there's something I really need to do," he said.

She didn't even have time to question it...he was drawing her into his arms and kissing her...it was the first time she had been kissed like that before...when he pulled away he said simply. "Now you know what it feels like to be kissed by a man who thinks you're beautiful."

She paused slightly before looking at him. "I'm not relationship material Brody. You were right. I was raped. And not just once either. The guy that I was with...he treated me like property. I was scared to leave...it wasn't until he came after the kids..."

He drew her into his arms as she sobbed. "It's okay now...you're safe. I will never let anyone hurt you or the kids again."

"What about _you_...what's your story? You know all about me...what about you?"

"Me...you want to know what I was doing right before I met you...I was loading a gun and planning on killing myself..."

She looked at him in shock...then she pressed her lips to his again as she settled against his string chest. "You're safe now too Brody...who knows...maybe we can find a way to heal each other."

"I hope so...I really hope so."

"Me too," she said. "me too."

Brody wrapped a blanket around her as he held her. She was so cold. He would have offered to run a bath for her but he didn't want to give her a reason to leave his arms. For now he was content to hold her and keep her warm. _She had saved his life for a reason he thought...he was pretty sure that loving her and being a father to her children was that reason...even if it was crazy to think that when he had just met her. _


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

She could hear the screams as she stared at the ceiling. For a moment she felt like she was back in that place...the place where love had turned into a nightmare...where home had become a prison...She had instinctively reached for the flashlight when she heard it again...It wasn't _her_ past coming back to haunt her.. It was his nightmares. She wondered at first if she should wake him and eventually decided to bring him out of his trance. She couldn't just lie there and listen to him suffer.

"Brody," she whispered. "Brody, wake up."

She touched his arm as she tried to shake him awake and he had responded badly...He had gone into combat mode like he had been trained to in the war...she was crying as he had his hands around her throat...She wasn't seeing Brody now...she was seeing her dead husband. Brody let her go when he realized where he was and she was left shuddering at the top of the bed.

"Nora...Nora, I'm sorry ..I didn't know...I didn't know what I was doing..."

"Is this how it's going to be Brody...If I try to wake you from another nightmare...I can't...I can't go through that again."

"You won't have to...please...Please give me another chance...I wouldn't hurt you for the world."

She crawled down from the head of the bed and looked into his eyes...she took his face in her hands as she caressed him. "I believe you Brody...You are as damaged as I am...what happened...what happened in the war that left you so broken?"

"Are you sure you want to know," he asked her? "These things aren't pretty Nora. They aren't for someone as beautiful as you."

"And you think_ my_ life is pretty Brody? I was married to a horrible man who hurt me repeatedly...I went through things that damage you forever. Nothing you could tell me would surprise me. I've seen so much already."

"I've seen my friends die Nora...I've watched them get blown up or shot at or really just mutilated...I've watched little kids killed or left to starve in a place that nobody would dare set foot in...they say it's heroic to fight in a war...It's not heroic Nora...It's survival."

"I'm so sorry," she said, as she pulled him closer, holding his head against her chest as he sobbed. "I wanted to kill myself Nora. That's what I was doing right before I met you. I was loading a gun. I didn't think I could handle the nightmares."

"You can handle them Brody...If I can handle them then you can. "

"How do I handle them Nora...How?"

"You look at those innocent children just down the hall...and you remind yourself that there are some things in life worth more then your demons. I've been where you are Brody. I've wanted to die. So many times I wanted to just end it. I couldn't do that. Those children need me...this child needs me...and I think you need me too."

_More then anything_, _he thought_. "I think you need me too, " he stated instead.

"I do," she said. "I'm not too proud to admit that I'm glad you didn't take your life. My children and I would have frozen to death if you hadn't come along."

"I'm glad you were there...you probably saved my life. "

_They needed each other more then they could ever admit. They had been damaged by the scars of life. They were each others salvation...If only they had the strength to reach for it. _


End file.
